Editors Guild protest threats to journalists in UP

New Delhi, June 28: The Editors Guild of India has written to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, protesting against the rising cases of "intimidation, threats and violence" against journalists by her administration.

Taking note of an incident of alleged manhandling of two journalist of IBN7 news channel, the Guild asked Mayawati to take all necessary steps to ensure that media can function freely in the state.

Two journalists from IBN7 -- Shalabh Mani Tripathi and Manoj Ranjan Tripathi -- were victims of police brutality, reportedly because they helped "expose the conspiracy and cover-up" behind the death of Deputy Chief Medical Officer Y S Sachan in the Lucknow jail hospital, the Guild said in a statement.

The scribes were able to prevent false cases being registered against them by the Lucknow Police only because one of them managed to escape from police custody and the city's media staged a march protesting against the false arrests, it said.

The Guild has appreciated Mayawati's action in suspending two police officers responsible for arresting and threatening the concerned journalists.

However, it has expressed its deep concern that police harassment of the media has become all "too common" in UP.

The Guild said the IBN7 TV channel was switched off in UP when the management refused to be pressured into presenting only the government point of view in the mysterious death of Sachan.

In the same week, IBN 7 was also switched off in the entire state, after it carried a report on the rising number of rape cases in Uttar Pradesh, the statement issued by Guild president T N Ninan and Secretary Coomi Kapoor said.

PTI